The First Thing You Need To Know About Freelance Contributor Agreements

The late, great Harper Lee made headlines in her twilight years by not only releasing a sequel to her famed To Kill a Mockingbird, but also for suing her literary agent for her lucrative copyright to the great classic. They ended up settling out of court, but this story serves as profound cautionary tale: no matter how long you’ve been writing, taking photos, or recording audio and video, the publishing and media world can be a perilous place.

Whether you’re an artist, author, or videographer, it can be difficult to make a living as an independent creator. So it’s an accomplishment when you receive publishing offers. But don’t be too quick to jump at an opportunity to have your written work, photos, or video published. You want to make sure before you start working with the publisher that you have a written and signed contract that outlines each party’s rights and responsibilities. How do you establish this relationship? Use a Freelance Contributor’s Agreement.

In the first part of this multi-part series about freelance contributor agreements, we address some of the initial issues both new and experienced freelancers experience when they are presented with a contributor’s agreement. You can check out the other articles in this series here:

If you come away with nothing else, remember that you should know what exactly each sentence of the contract says, so that you don’t unwittingly give away rights that you actually intended to keep for yourself.

What is a Freelance Contributor’s Agreement?

Often called a “Submissions Agreement,” a freelance contributor’s agreement establishes the relationship between you (the “Contributor,” e.g. a writer, photographer, videographer, or other content creator) and the intended publisher of the content. This is a legal document that should set out the terms and conditions under which you will create and submit content (e.g. articles, photos, video or other content). As the “Freelance” title indicates, the agreement should reflect that you are an independent contractor – in other words, you are someone who is hired to do specific work for a company but you are not an employee of said company.

When drafted carefully, this type of agreement can also help you cover your back, both by limiting your liability and clarifying each parties’ responsibilities in a way that can help minimize and shorten disputes. This type of agreement should always be in writing, so that everyone knows what their responsibilities are and can refer to it when questions arise. You should make sure to read each provision carefully, as these responsibilities are important to keep in mind as you move forward. In short, you need to make sure you understand what you own and what you’re giving away.

Getting Paid

An essential component to any contract is the payment for the goods – especially for freelancers. Often, a freelancer’s income will rely on intermittent commissions instead of a bimonthly paycheck, which makes it all the more necessary to clearly address payment terms in any agreement. One way to ensure that the contributor (you) are paid is to make your license grant revocable if the publisher is in breach of any term of the agreement. This means that you are taking away the publisher’s right to use your content if they breach your agreement. Thus, if your license grant is revocable and a publisher didn’t pay you appropriately, this would allow you to revoke the license, and either prevent publication or request removal of the content.

You should also carefully consider and design the payment section depending on the relationship you have with publisher. For example, you should always ask yourself if there any other costs associated with creating the content that are not factored into your compensation. If there are, they should be specified (e.g. travel expenses, research & database expenses). Not all content publishers will reimburse you for these types of expenses, but some publishers might depending on various factors.

While reading this article won’t make you an expert on freelance agreements, we hope we provided you with enough basic information to help you start researching some of these concepts on your own, and to help you recognize when you might need to reach out to an attorney. Stay tuned for the remaining parts of this series, where we will look at different aspects of freelance contracts, including key protections and the parts that people often overlook. If you have additional questions, comments, or want us to do a more advanced article on this topic or a series for Forbes, feel free to contact us with your questions, comments, and suggestions.

*Co-author Erika Lee is a Staff Attorney at New Media Rights, where she provides preventative and transactional legal assistance in entertainment, intellectual property and privacy law matters.